Hinata's Courage
by The-Lost-Ninjas
Summary: um...this is just a cute NarutoHinata story to counter an evil story my fellow lost ninja wrote...which was evil and made me cry sniffle This was written by just Eimaj.


Hinata sighed quietly as she slid the door closed behind her, shutting out the sound of the family head berating the newest young prodigy of the White Eye clan. She was almost glad that she had been declared practically useless after her total defeat by her cousin of the 'lower' family, Neji. Although on the other hand, she wished that they would stop bringing it up all the time, reminding her that she was a discrase to the Hyuga name.   
  
Fidgeting, she stepped onto the street and walked to the nearby shopping district, not looking up from the ground. It had been years since she'd decided to change and become a stronger person, but she couldn't seem to shake her nervousness when she was in public...or near anyone, really.  
  
Catching herself, she whipped her head up, determined to look people in the eyes if she walked by them...and saw something that immediately made her want to look back down again.   
  
Naruto had just emerged from an intersecting street, his arms pulled up behind his head, with an almost thoughtful look on his face. Hinata blushed red at the mere sight of him, her courage melting away in an instant.  
  
No. She said to herself, and lifted her eyes back up, which had instinctively started to look towards the ground. 'No, I will say something to him!' She swallowed as Naruto continued down the street, wishing that she had the kind of confidence to run up and happily greet the boy she liked, like Sakura did. If she didn't hurry, he'd turn around the next corner...  
  
"Um...Hello...N-Naruto-kun." she blurted out, but so quietly that she expected that he hadn't heard her, particularly in the middle of the street with people walking and talking all around them. Naruto, however, opened his eyes and turned his head to look over at her with a slightly shocked look on his face.  
  
"H-Hinata?" He said, then a grin spread across his face, presumably to hide the slight blush on his cheeks that Hinata had barely noticed. "Good morning, what's up?" he asked, walking up to her. He had to look downwards now, since she was quite a bit shorter than him after his recent growth spurt (he was still shorter than most guys his age), but he still had that familiar Naruto grin on his face.  
  
Hinata started to fidget, but forced her eyes to remain looking up at him. "Um...I was just out for a walk..." she answered nervously, hoping the warmth she felt growing on her cheeks wasn't too obvious. "Wh-what are you doing?"  
  
"I was bored sitting at home by myself so I decided to go out and get some Ramen." He answered. This time, however, Hinata definitely noticed the blush that rose ever so slowly into his cheeks. "Um, if your not busy, wanna come?" he offered cheerily.  
  
Hinata smiled despite her nervousness and simply nodded. If possible, Naruto's grin widened even more, and he turned back to his origional direction. Hinata made a quick little hop and fell into step beside him, feeling undescribably happy that her decicion to talk to him had lead to this...it wasn't a date, but she regarded any time spent around Naruto as good time. Naruto, for his part, seemed his usual happy self so it was kind of hard to tell how he was feeling exactly.  
  
She'd never been into the little ramen shop Naruto liked, before. She'd hung out down the street trying to get up the courage to go in and see if he was there, but she'd never actually gotten that courage. So it felt a little strange and exhilerating to actually step in in front of Naruto, who held up the short blue door flaps with one arm so they wouldn't drag against her hair. She was slightly surprised when Naruto offered to help her onto a stool. Blushing a little, she accepted, even though she really didn't need the help.   
  
The Ramen man turned from what he was cooking to look at his new customers, and grinned. "Well Hello, Naruto, not with Iruka this time?" he asked cheerily.  
  
"Nope." Naruto grinned. "I'm with Hinata-chan." he said happily, nodding his head towards the dark haired girl, who blushed to the tips of her hair at being pointed out by Naruto...not to mention what the phrase "I'm with Hinata-chan" was doing to her already rapidly beating heart.  
  
"Ah!" The raman man exclaimed, having just noticed the shy girl. "I don't remember seeing you in here before." He smiled.  
  
"I...uh..." Hinata stuttered, not knowing what to say. The man however, smiled kindly and changed the subject.  
  
"So, miss Hinata, what kind of Ramen do you like?" He asked patiently.  
  
"Um...um...seafood..." Hinata stuttered some more, but felt more brave with Naruto beside her than she would have had she entered by herself. "Um...can I have lots of noodles?" she asked.  
  
"Of course, and I suppose you'll be having the usual then Naruto?" The man turned to Naruto, who grinned and nodded. The man smiled and turned to put the orders together, and Hinata, feeling her nervousness start to dissapate with the more time she spent with the happy blonde, had to ask something.  
  
"What's...the usual?" she wondered, actually looking up at him without having to force her head up.  
  
"Well...I've kind of come up with my own ramen flavour, which is what I buy whenever I come here." He answered with a smile. "You can taste it when it's done, it's pretty good."  
  
After a few moments the ramen was done and Naruto, true to his word, held out his bowl for Hinata to take a taste before he even dipped his chopsticks into it. Somewhat nervously, and afraid her nervous shaking would cause her to lose the noodles and look like an idiot, Hinata dipped her own chopsticks into the ramen and sucessfully pulled out a long string of noodles. Carefully she ate the noodles, making sure not to spill anything on herself, and was pleasantly surprised.   
  
"It's really good." she said, smiling up at him, and his grinned widened even more.  
  
"Good...I thought maybe I was just a weirdo who liked strange things." He joked, and took a bite of his ramen, slurping it loudly. Hinata, dispite herself, started to giggle. Naruto, however, was ever the encouragable one and, instead of taking this as an insult, he took it as an opporutunity to goof off and make Hinata laugh.  
  
In truth, she hadn't laughed that well in a long long time, and she enjoyed every one of Naruto's antics, and even summoned up the courage to steal a vegetable from his bowl as a joke of her own. All in all, it was the most fun she'd really ever had, and she didn't want it to have to end. So when the bowls were both empty, and Naruto, despite her protests, pulled out his thin wallet and paid for their lunch, she followed Naruto out of the ramen shop with a heavy heart.  
  
Not wanting to leave him before she absolutely had to, she stood behind him as he surveyed the street. He turned to look behind him and she feared he'd think she was following him or something, and be angry with her. Instead, however, he merely smiled, almost as if he was relieved about something. "You don't have anywhere to be, do you?" he asked hopefully.  
  
"Um...not really no, why?" she wondered, but her spirits were cautiously lifting with the slim hope that she might spend more time with him.  
  
"Well it's just that...it's pretty boring at home, so I usually like to take a walk this time of the day..." He paused and scratched the back of his head for a moment. "Would you like to join me?" he asked, and if Hinata didn't know better she'd swear he was blushing.  
  
Hinata blushed as well, and she was certain that her blush would be totally ovbious to him when he looked over at her. To hide it, she ducked her head down in her customarily shy way and nodded. "I-I would like that." she answered quietly.  
  
Naruto smiled, but as they started their walk, Hinata noticed that he was decidedly quiet...which was particularly unusual because this was Naruto, one of the biggest loudmouth jokesters in the villiage. Daring to glance up, she found that he had a very thoughtful look on his face.  
  
'Naruto-kun..." she started, and at the sound of her voice, he seemed to snap out of whatever strange mood he was in...well sort of. He started and looked down at her, looking almost serious for a moment, his deep blue eyes earnest, as if he was trying to find some kind of courage. But just as quickly as it came, that expression was gone, replaced by his usual grin, even if it was a little less wide than usual.  
  
"Let's go this way, I'll show you something." He smiled and pointed down a little trail that they had come upon on the outskirts of the villiage.  
  
With most other people, Hinata would have been a little worried, if not downright frightened, to go down such an obscure little trail alone with them. But she felt safe with Naruto there and somehow knew he would never do anything to her, and protect her if something were to happen. She trusted him completely, so she smiled and nodded at his request, and Naruto lead her down the little trail.  
  
The journey was a little more difficult than she'd expected, but for a ninja, it wasn't too much to handle, particularly with Naruto offering a helping hand when they had to climb up the few steeper hills they encountered. To Hinata's surprise, Naruto seemed genuinely concerned for her well being and asked several times if she was ok, and if she needed a break.  
  
Hinata replied every time that she was fine, and they would continue to wherever it was that Naruto was taking her. The trip, in fact, was becoming very enjoyable to Hinata. She felt much more safer and bolder out here alone with Naruto than she would have in a crowd of people, and the trail was not that trying.  
  
At last, Naruto hopped up onto the last rock, and reached down to offer Hinata a helping hand. Accepting it, Hinata allowed Naruto to haul her up, and she was met with a wonderful sight.  
  
They were on a cliff face overlooking the villiage...she hadn't thought there was any way to get to any of the cliffs, except for the path going up to the Hokage mountain carvings. It was noon and she could see the people milling about in the streets...it almost looked like a moving mosaic of bright, interesting colours. A flock of white birds flew overhead and soared noisily over the houses, chirping at themselves happily. Hinata felt as if she could almost touch the sky up here or something.  
  
"Naruto-kun...this place is...amazing..." she managed to choke out, unable to take her eyes off of the scenery before her.  
  
Naruto smiled, and flopped down cross legged in a spot in the grass that seemed to have been sat in recently. "This is my favorite spot...I come here sometimes...when I'm bored or lonely." He smiled up at her, and patted the grass next to him. "I've never shown it to anyone else though so you have to keep it a secret, k?"  
  
Hinata took the spot offered to him and sat down carefully, her mind reeling. Why had he decided to bring her up here, when he'd never shown it to anyone else? What could that possibly mean? "O-ok, I won't tell." she answered once she'd gotten comfy in the grass.  
  
"Too bad you weren't here last night." Naruto commented, almost to himself. "The sunset was so pretty..." He trailed off and stared down at the town with that serious look Hinata had almost thought she'd imagined earlier. Hinata glanced sideways at him, trying to figure out what he was thinking, but all she could think of was what he had just said...he came here when he was lonely.  
  
Hinata had always known him to be lonely when they were children...living alone without even the presence of a parental figure to guide him...but she thought that since all of the trials he'd been through and all of the friends he'd made, that he would have gotten over that by now. After all, he always seemed to happy when she spotted him around town. It must still be lonely though, living alone, and thinking back she wondered how many of those people were actually his friends. He'd had to fight to prove himself to everyone, and many people still seemed to ignore him, dispite all of his good qualities.  
  
"Hinata-chan..." Naruto spoke up suddenly, but didn't turn his head to look at her. She could see that earnest look come into his eyes again and they almost sparkled with some sort of hidden emotion...she couldn't help but think that he had grown so much over the years...where she had stayed the same.  
  
"Yes, Naruto-kun?" she asked, seemingly not noticing that her nervous stutter was gone.  
  
Naruto was silent for a moment, and he reached down to pluck a blade of grass before he spoke. "I've...I've never really felt accepted...down there." he said suddenly. "I try, but sometimes I wonder if I'm even going about it right..." He twirled the grass in his hands, but still did not turn his head towards her.  
  
Hinata nodded, indicating she was listening. She couldn't really understand why he was confiding in her all of a sudden, but she was happy to be given a chance to help him, even if it only turned out to be in some small way.  
  
"But..." Here he stopped, and his face suddenly turned a deep shade of red. He bowed his blushing face for a moment, then threw the blade of grass down, stood up, and messed up his hair in apparent frustration. "Argh, why does this have to be so hard to say?" He asked himself. Hinata, dispite her confusion, smiled. Even when he was trying to be serious he was the same old Naruto.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Naruto looked up at the sky, as if searching for some inspiration to say what he was trying to say. "What I'm trying to say is...I've always felt that you were the only one around me who...who...I guess who believed in me..." He finally turned to look down at her, his eyes now consumed with that unnamed emotion. The sight of them made Hinata's stomach do a flip flop, and the butterflies in there went wild. She felt her cheeks blush, and almost in response, Naruto blushed and turned his head away again.  
  
"I've been thinking a lot lately...and whatever I'm thinking about...it always turns..." Here he paused and turned around completely. "T-to you."  
  
Hinata thought her heart was going to burst of of her chest at the words coming out of his mouth, and didn't know if she'd be able to respond. Fortunately, Naruto was not done yet.  
  
"At first...I didn't know what was going on, then I started seeing you everywhere I went...it was as if you'd suddenly become more visible than before...maybe I was imagining things, I don't know..." He slowly turned towards her, as she stared up at him, her heart flying at a mile a minute. He couldn't possibly be saying what she thought he was saying...could he?  
  
"I...I think...I...I..." He stuttered, then took a deep breath. "I love you."  
  
Hinata merely stared, his words ringing in her ears...she was afraid that she'd imagined them, that she was dreaming or something and that she would awake any moment now to find herself alone.  
  
Naruto watched her for a moment then turned away. "You don't have to answer right away..." he told her. "I just thought...you should know. If you want to leave, I understand." He stared down at the town.  
  
Hinata sat there so long that Naruto had probably thought she'd slipped off and left him there, not wanting to answer him. As she stared at the back of his head, however, she slowly let it sink in what he had said...and what it meant for her.  
  
Some strength welled up inside of her, and she lifted herself to her feet. She felt a little unsteady, but she slowly walked up to him, her feet making little noise in the soft grass. She tried to open her mouth, but her voice would not work...but she was determined. If she couldn't answer him with her voice she would have to do it some other way.  
  
Taking her last two steps she reached out a hand, and let it slip easily into his...their hands fit perfectly, she thought happily. Natuto blinked and looked down at her, a shocked look in his face, but she smiled up at him, and that look dissapeared, to be replaced by a greatful Naruto grin.  
  
Naruto suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace, and after a moment's shock, she returned the hug, tears of happiness stinging pleasantly in her eyes. She realised then that she had achieved what she'd always wanted...she'd changed enough to be able to take that last step needed to show Naruto how she felt...and even though it felt almost surreal to her that it was all happening she knew...this was no dream.  
  
the end...fear the sappiness of it all! Muahahahahaha! And it's only five pages long! I actually wrote a short story O.o I think the sad music made it tilt slightly to the depressing side though. 


End file.
